Federal report cites bias by San Francisco police

Sudhin Thanawala

October 13, 2016 - 5:36 AM

San Francisco police use force against blacks more often than other racial groups and pull over African American drivers at a disproportionately high rate, according to a U.S. Department of Justice a new report that found evidence of bias on the force that is nearly equal parts white and minority.

The DOJ's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services conducted the review at the request of city officials following protests over the fatal shooting of a black man, Mario Woods, and the disclosure that some officers had exchanged racist and homophobic text messages.

The report, which was released Wednesday, also noted there were 11 fatal incidents involving San Francisco officers in the past three years and nine involved people of colour.

"There's going to be some hard truths told today," Ronald Davis, director of the DOJ's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, said at a news conference announcing the findings. "But to be selectively ignorant and pretend nothing is going on around you will ultimately be fatal to the organization."

DOJ officials advised that more research was needed to determine whether the use of force figures reflect racism, discrimination or other factors such as a higher volume of calls.

The report makes 272 recommendations to help the department improve policies and practices and build community trust. But the measures are not binding.

The DOJ office that reviewed San Francisco police is distinct from the DOJ's civil rights division, which investigated the Ferguson, Missouri, and Cleveland police departments last year, resulting in binding reforms detailed in legal settlements.

San Francisco — a rainbow-flagged city that prides itself on diversity — has a population that is nearly half Asian and Hispanic. Many blacks have left the city and now make up just 6 per cent of its population.

San Francisco's police department reflects the city's diversity and has only a slight white majority among its 2,000 officers. Nine per cent of officers are black.

Like many cities, racial tensions have intensified in recent years, fueled in part by police killings caught on video such as the death of Woods in December.

His shooting sparked protests and led to the resignation of then-Police Chief Greg Suhr in May.

Earlier in the year, a judge ruled that Suhr had waited too long to discipline officers who had exchanged racist and homophobic text messages.

Suhr said he delayed discipline because he didn't want to interfere with a federal corruption investigation into several officers.

San Francisco's public defender in April released another batch of racist and homophobic text messages among police. The offensive texts referred to a Latino man using a derogatory term and compared black people to "a pack of wild animals on the loose."

"Like many cities across the nation, San Francisco is working to rebuild trust between law enforcement and our communities," Mayor Ed Lee said at Wednesday's news conference.

Lee and interim police chief Toney Chaplin said they were committed to implementing every recommendation in the federal report.

"It's going to be painful up front, but rewarding on the back end," Chaplin said.

The DOJ report found 37 per cent of the department's nearly 550 use-of-force incidents over three years starting in May 2013 involved African Americans. Thirty-five per cent involved whites and 18 per cent Hispanics.

Black drivers were also disproportionately pulled over in relation to their overall numbers in the driving population, according to the report. Nearly 15 per cent of 330,000 traffic stops involved African Americans.

The report found that African American and Hispanic drivers were also more likely to be searched and arrested than whites.

The Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP, said prosecutors need to bring criminal charges against officers in the killing of Woods and other shootings to restore trust between the African American community and police.

"Until then, we have a great uphill battle to get this community to trust the police department in the city," he said.

OPINION Editor, This is a busy time of year, but I find it’s also a time of reflection, particularly as January marks the end of my two-year term as Chair and my 10 years serving on the Board of Interior